ABSTRACT
Upon entering the area of sterol analysis one might easily be overwhelmed with the high number of publications on this topic and the very detailed procedures described in official methods. Although each of these methods applies to a specific question, the practical approach might not be directly evident. For practical purposes within an industrial food research and development environment other criteria might be used in comparison with, say, clinical research. With the above-described methods we have defined within our laboratory a practical set of methods for sterol analysis which meet most of our requirements. New questions can be handled fairly quick by defining up front the desired level of detail and accuracy in the quantification. The answer required determines the separation strategy. The sample composition defines the clean-up strategy and the combination defines the solution to the question raised to the analyst.
